Passing the Torch
by CaledoniaDraconia
Summary: Hotch's parting words to his son. Inspired my Bon Jovi's "Walk Like a Man". AU to season 5.


A/n: This was inspired by a very hard to find Bon Jovi song, "Walk like a Man". The song was a bonus track on the Target store exclusive Lost Highway cd. If you don't have this song, do whatever you have to to find it...it's AWESOME!!!! The song doesn't really lend itself to a songfic, so I only used bits and pieces rather than the whole thing. This was written before the Season 5 premiere but just now posted…lines from the song are italicized.

**Flashback**

It was 2:00 AM when a car rumbled into the Hotchners' driveway....the usual time. Mrs. Hotchner had gone to bed hours before; she'd stopped wondering long ago and just come to accept it. Aaron knew he should probably just go along with it as well, just keep quiet. Keep quiet...that was the only way to survive in the Hotchner household. Seventeen years Aaron Hotchner had kept quiet as he watched his hothead father slowly break his mother and now he was done.

For the past week, Aaron had secretly followed his father around town. The bars, the attorney's office, the clinic...what did it mean? Had he committed some horrible crime and was preparing to skip town? Was he going to leave his family to live with his latest mistress? What in God's name was his father doing?

The doorknob jangled and Mr. Hotchner staggered inside, intending to sneak into bed unnoticed. A lamp clicked on, illuminating Aaron's face. "Hello, Dad."

He braced himself, expecting his father to hit him. The blow never came...he didn't even curse at him or yell to wake the neighborhood. He just said, "Sit down, son. We've gotta talk."

Not only was that the last thing Aaron had expected him to say, but he thought he saw tears in his father's eyes. That couldn't be possible, could it? Not after the all this time tormenting the emotion out of his family. "I'm dying, Aaron," he said.

"What?!" Aaron blurted out in disbelief. This couldn't be real. It was all some sick joke…a new way his father had found to torture him.

Mr. Hotchner put a hand up to shush his son. "Shh!" he whispered. "You'll wake your mother."

"But- how could-"Aaron began, trying to form a coherent question.

"Lung cancer," Mr. Hotchner cut him off. "The doctors say I have three months."

Suddenly it all made sense to Aaron. His father was leaving them behind but it wasn't of his own accord. And all the bizarre stops… a father's last gift to a family in turmoil. He felt sick, as if he'd just been punched in the stomach. He wished his father had hit him…at least the pain from that would go away; not like this.

He felt tears stinging his eyes but blinked them back; he wasn't stupid enough to cry in front of his father. "Mom and Sean…" he choked out. "Do they know?"

Mr. Hotchner shook his head. He put a hand on his son's shoulder. "I know I don't have much time," he said. "Just in case I don't get to say it again, I'm proud of you, Aaron."

"You're going to have to be the man of the house soon," he continued. "I hope you'll remember this when I'm gone:

_Stand tall when you stumble_

_Step proud when you're humbled_

_All the lessons you'll learn_

_Won't be the ones that you'll plan_

_And every step up that mountain_

_Will be more than worth counting_

_When you walk through the valley_

_May you walk like a man_

Those words haunted Aaron throughout the night. He lay flat on his back, one arm across his streaming eyes, his teeth clenched against the sobs that threatened to escape him. He had to be careful not to wake his mother in the room across the hall or Sean in the bed next to his, little Sean who was only half his age. His light brown head peeked above the blankets; he was still happily dreaming. He had no idea.

**End flashback**

Aaron was dying. He had to be...there was so much blood. He didn't want Jack to find out that way, the way he'd found out about his own father. No, he needed to know the truth, the whole truth. With what little strength he had left, he pulled a letter from his coat pocket. He had written it long ago, just in case. He knew Haley was still angry with him but still he hoped she would give it to Jack when the time was right.

He vaguely heard Foyet laughing. Had he really made the right choice with his life? All this time, all the cases he'd worked, unsub after unsub caught, each one worse than the last. It never stopped…they just kept coming, people kept dying. It was true what they said…no one man could change the world. He had given up his family for a vision of a better world that had never come true. Was it all worthwhile?

The door banged open. "Don't move! FBI!" someone shouted just as Aaron had done hundreds of times before. He recognized the voice as Derek Morgan's. There was a hum of radio static and Foyet's sinister laughter. Shots fired. A second voice, higher, more panicked, immediately recognizable as Spencer Reid's, stammered a request for EMTs into a radio.

Aaron felt a hand on his face. He opened his eyes weakly, half expecting George Foyet to be alive and standing over him again. His vision momentarily cleared and his eyes met those of Emily Prentiss. She brushed his hair out of his face and sniffled as she said, "Foyet's gone."

He knew he soon would be too. His head drooped to one side and he cast his eyes on the crumpled piece of paper in his hand. "Get this to Jack…" he said his voice barely a whisper, "when the time is right." He felt Emily's hand on his and his grip released. As everything went black all around him, the last thing he heard was Emily's sobs. Aaron Hotchner was gone.

Time had passed, and the unit Aaron Hotchner had led was no more. Spencer Reid was now head of the BAU. He seemed the least likely candidate for the job but he was a different person now. The years had changed him, toughened him. That shy genius boy who could hardly aim a gun…he died with his supervisor.

David Rossi had long since re-retired, or as much retired as could be expected of him. He was a little older now…and a little grayer, though he had lost none of his passionate fire. He still wrote books about criminology, still made appearances at colleges, still traveled the country to consult with police departments when needed. .

Jennifer Jareau, now Jennifer Jareau-Lamontagne, had quit her job long ago to raise her only son, Henry. She still looked just like she did back then…the boy; however, was a different story. He was twelve now and resembled Will but he was growing ever more like his mother each day. He was a bright star in school and an excellent athlete.

Derek Morgan and Penelope Garcia were married not long after their unit chief's death. Two years later, they both left the BAU when they were blessed with a baby boy, who, of course, bore his name. Parenting had changed them both. She no longer dressed weirdly in clothes with loud, bright patterns or dyed her hair in unnatural colors and he had learned to control his temper.

Of the team Aaron Hotchner had once led, only one other remained. Emily Prentiss had been offered the top position time and time again but she never took it. As far as she was concerned, that job was Hotch's and no one else's. Besides, she hated politics.

And Jack...he was a man now. He was a senior in high school; just moments away from graduation...class valedictorian. He stood beside the school principal onstage, his strong chin set, his dark hair flattened by his cap, his red tie slightly askew under his long gown. He looked so much like his father now; except for his eyes…he had Haley's eyes.

The last few stragglers filed into their seats. There was a loud whine of feedback as the principal picked up the mike. "Ladies and gentlemen, our class valedictorian, Jack Hotchner." her voice resonated.

She moved aside as Jack stepped up and adjusted the mike to his own height. Dead silence. "These were my father's last words to me before he died," he said in a small voice.

All eyes were on him now. His voice grew louder, stronger as he continued:

_Stand tall when you stumble_

_Step proud when you're humbled_

_All the lessons you'll learn_

_Won't be the ones that you'll plan_

_And every step up that mountain_

_Will be more than worth counting_

_When you walk through the valley_

_May you walk like a man_

_When you go on without me_

_Walk like a man_

A deafening roar of applause erupted. Jack stared out into the audience and saw his mother on the front row. She smiled to him, though he could tell she was crying. His aunt was next to her and his grandparents, the Brookses. His uncle Sean was there, too, and pointing a video camera at him.

JJ and Will were in the next row with Henry between them holding up a sign that said "Go Jack!". Emily had brought her mother, and the two of them clapped quietly and politely. The Morgan family took up an entire row of seats, as Derek's family in Chicago had flown in for the occasion. Aaron Hotchner Morgan, the little boy who had inherited his father's looks and his mother's wit, climbed atop his father's shoulders and yelled. Unit Chief Spencer Reid sat further back between his father and mother, who looked very pale and shaken.

There were other people who Jack had never met, who he knew only from stories and photographs of the old BAU. Max Ryan, who had caught the Keystone killer, sat towards the back with his arms crossed. Katie Cole, who cracked the "Peter" case, smiled sweetly. Elle Greenaway, who hadn't always gotten along with Aaron Hotchner, bore no outward signs of ill will as she cheered for Jack.

Someone had even managed to find the legendary Jason Gideon. He was old…much older than his photographic counterpart and he walked with a cane now. There were other people with him, a younger man and woman with three children: two girls and a boy. Jack guessed that the younger man must be Gideon's son and the children his grandchildren.

Then there was the new BAU. Liam Abbey, the son of the dying man accused of setting fires to families in San Francisco, was now a top field agent. David Smith, the little boy once forced to help his father abduct women, was the Bureau's tech analyst. Milagros Villanueva, who had challenged the serial rapist/killer in Mexico, was now a US citizen and the BAU's expert on sex crimes. And Kelly Shane, the only survivor of the Turner brothers and Aaron Hotchner's last case, worked as the BAU's liaison.

Jack looked around. All those people were there for him…most of them people he didn't even know, from all walks of life, all of them with one thing in common. They'd all been touched in some manner by his father…the one tie that bound them all. Now, because of Aaron Hotchner, the old BAU had stayed close, the original had reunited, and the new was made up entirely of his success stories. As Jack shook the principal's hand and turned to leave the stage with his diploma, a glowing white light shone in his eyes. He thought it was probably just a technical problem, but he decided to look anyway. The light cleared and the form of Aaron Hotchner appeared. Tears flooded his eyes as he put a transparent hand on Jack's shoulder and said. "Jack, I am so very proud of you."

And then he went away as quickly as he'd come. There was nothing else he could say. The torch had been passed…Jack had leared to walk like a man..

.


End file.
